Tanzania: New plan to raise sugar production is laudable

Tanzania's plan to draft in small-scale entrepreneurs, and produce at least 700,000 tonnes of sugar annually by 2025 is ambitious, to say the least. However, this does not in any way mean that the plan is impossible to execute or ill-advised. According to Industry and Trade minister Kitila Mkumbo, the government intends to engage small-scale processors who will complement large-scale manufacturers in order to attain this noble goal. Another key player in the strategy is the Tanzania Engineering and Manufacturing Design Organisation (Temdo), which is currently designing and manufacturing sugarcane processing mini-plants, which are pivotal to the success of the plan. Temdo director general Frederick Kahimba said the mini-plants would cost about Sh250 million each. While this may seem a bit on the high side, it is still about half the price of an imported machine. Mr Kahimba revealed that the first units would be ready by June 2022, and added that each plant would be able to process ...